Page 53 of If Looks Could Kill

It took me a block to catch up to Cora and Freyda. Mike came after with a suitcase in each hand.

They ran in dancing slippers on filthy streets of gravel and shards of metal and glass.

“What happened?” I panted. “Where’s Pearl? Is she still back there?”

Freyda whirled around, clutching her sides. “You mean, you don’t know?”

A cold hand gripped my heart. “Know what?”

Freyda shook her head. “Pearl’s gone.”

My heart sank. Not again. “She was asleep when I left,” I said. “Where is she?”

“I figured you’d gone together,” cried Freyda. “How could you leave us?”

She resumed her march up the street. “And all the time, you were just”—she gestured toward Mike—“having a night about town with your fancy boy. On tonight, of all nights.”

“I went to warn my flatmates,” I said, “that Rosie’s men might come there looking.”

Cora watched Freyda’s face.

“And to get my things,” I continued, “and Pearl’s. So we’d have clothes to share with you. And money, to put us all on a train in the morning.”

Freyda would not be appeased. “A train to where?”

Cora was out of breath, and the cold seemed to affect her lungs.

“Come on,” she wheezed to Freyda. “We don’t have time for this. We’ve got to go.”

“I was going to take us all home,” I told Freyda. “To my home, upstate. Where we could hide in safety.” I blinked back tears. “And recover.”

“That’s pretty,” Freyda said. “We’ll sit on your farm and pet bunnies till we feel better.”

“I don’t have a farm,” I said through tears. “I don’t have bunnies. I just wanted you safe.”

“My life’s here,” Freyda told me. “I’ve got family. Friends. I don’t need to be evicted from my own city.”

“I’m sorry I left, Freyda,” I said. “I’m so sorry you woke up frightened and alone.”

“I wasn’t alone,” Freyda said. “And I didn’t wake up ‘frightened.’ I woke up first to all kinds of terrible noises, but nothing followed, so I decided I was dreaming and went back to sleep.

Then I woke up to that woman poking at me, moaning and crying, asking me if I was Pearl and where-oh-where could Pearl be.

Searching the bedclothes like Pearl must be hidden under the pillow. ”

I stared at her. “Miss Stella did that?”

“Creepy,” observed Mike.

“Miss Stella is off her rocker,” Cora said.

“It was terrifying. Her snakes hissing while she wailed for Pearl.” She shivered.

“She heard something she thought might be Pearl, and hurried off to investigate it, or I don’t know how we would’ve dressed and gotten away.

We had to get out of there before she… took it out on us. ”

I glanced at Mike. He’d certainly heard the “snakes hissing” bit.

“Are you sure Pearl’s not still there?” I asked. “Could she have been in another room?”

Freyda glared at me. “I’m as sure Pearl’s not in there as I’m sure you weren’t in there.”

“Tabitha was trying to help,” Cora said in a low voice.

“Trying, nothing,” Freyda snapped. “You saw her with…” She wagged a dismissive hand in Mike’s direction. “With that . That’s what this was about.”

“She’s only tried to help.” Mike looked down. “I took a liberty. It was wrong of me.”

I looked away. Did he regret kissing me?

“Well,” said Freyda, heavy with sarcasm, “that’s a way to describe… I was going to say my week, but let’s just say forever,” she said. “Men taking liberties they do not deserve.”

The girls’ ill-shod feet shifted from side to side on the brittle, frozen mud of the street.

“What about you, Cora?” I asked her. “Would you like to come to my home? It’s a three- or four-hour train ride. Would you like to get away? Leave the city far behind?”

Cora shook her head. “I’ll stay with Freyda,” she said, “but thanks all the same.”

Just breathe, I told myself. They’re angry, they’re hurt, and they’re afraid.

“Where will you go tonight?” I asked Freyda. “Home to your family?”

Freyda folded her arms across her chest. “No,” she said. “I’ve got a friend who’ll let us in. The two of us. Me and Cora.” She swallowed. “My friend doesn’t have room for more.”

“Is it close by?” I asked her.

She shook her head.

“Mike,” I said, “is there any way to find a cab at this hour?”

He set down the suitcases. “There should be,” he said. “Let me try.”

Freyda groaned. “I can’t afford a cab, Tabitha.”

“Let us take you there,” I told her. “Make sure you get there safely.”

Mike found us a cab, then bundled all of us, plus suitcases, inside. Cora and Freyda leaned against each other on the leather seat. Mike sat beside me, keeping a cautious distance.

We reached the friend’s tenement shortly after a set of distant church bells chimed the hour of midnight.

Freyda and Cora went inside. A moment later, Freyda stuck her head out and waved us away.

She had found her friend. I saw extra lights come on in a second-story window and a stocky young male figure pulling curtains closed.

Mike spoke to the cabdriver, and we moved on.

“What happens now?” Mike asked me.

The utter impossibility of knowing anything made me want to cry.

“I need to find Pearl,” I told him.

The lonely whistle of an overnight train clanking atop the Third Avenue El keened above.

“My God,” I whispered. “What if she’s dead, Mike?”

“Let’s not open that door yet,” he said. “All we know is that she’s not where she was before.”

“Why would she leave?” I said. “What could have been going through her mind?”

“Unless she had somewhere else she was eager to be,” Mike said, “it would seem something made her too afraid to stay.”

“Or,” I added, “she didn’t really want to… stay anywhere. Anymore.” I buried my face in my hands. “What kind of friend am I?” I moaned. “I never should’ve left her there alone.”

“Pearl wasn’t alone,” he said. “You felt she was safe. You hoped to keep others safe too.”

I reached for his hand. “You’re a great comfort, Mike.”

He took mine and held it between both of his.

“Where is the driver taking us?” I asked.

“That’s what I wanted to ask you about,” he said. “Unless you know where Pearl might be, I don’t know how we can find someone at large in this whole city at this hour of the night.”

I couldn’t think of anyplace she might go.

“How would you feel,” Mike said slowly, “about staying at my home?”

I stiffened. Staying overnight at a young man’s home?

“As the guest of my aunt and uncle,” he added quickly. “I can sleep on the sofa in the parlor, and you can use my room.”

My mind spun, trying to take this all in.

“We need sleep,” he said. “Tomorrow, we’ll figure out how to find Pearl.”

“Do you live above the tavern, Mike?”

He nodded.

“But… didn’t we think Mother Rosie’s people might be watching for your return?”

“It’s a risk,” he admitted, “but one I think we can chance. It’s after midnight. Maybe they’ve gone home.”

I considered this.

“I believe my home is our best option,” continued Mike. “I’ve asked the driver to drop us off around the corner. My plan is for us to slip in via the back alley.”

I was deathly tired. The thought of lying down was so very tempting.

“I’ll keep you safe,” he said quietly. “As much as it lies in my power.”

I trusted Mike. He had behaved in every way as a gentleman and a friend.

I barely knew him. I should say no to this.

A phalanx of every Sunday school teacher I’d ever had since the day of my confirmation stood in a ghostly line before me, scowling and wagging warning fingers.

“I’d love to,” I told him. “If you’re sure you don’t mind.”

A square of outside window light passed over him just as a smile lit his face.

“But what will your aunt and uncle say?”

He smiled. “Showing up with you,” he said, “will spare me the scolding of a lifetime.”

“What?”

“Hearts of gold, both of them. But Aunt Mag has probably been praying the Rosary all night, certain I’m dead.” He grinned. “You’ll boost my standing considerably.”

“So that’s why you’re inviting me.”

There was just something about that boy’s smile. “You’ve found me out, Miss Woodward,” he said. “That’s why I’m inviting you.”